Introduction to Earth Science
Pre-Test Questions
Course Introduction
Introduction to Earth Science provides a foundational overview of Earth's systems and processes, exploring the dynamic interactions between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. The course examines key topics such as plate tectonics, rocks and minerals, weather and climate, the water cycle, natural hazards, and Earth's history. Emphasizing scientific inquiry and critical thinking, students gain a comprehensive understanding of Earth's structure and processes, and how these natural systems impact human society and the environment. This course lays the groundwork for further studies in geology, meteorology, oceanography, and environmental science.
Recommended Textbook
Foundations of Earth Science 7th Edition by Frederick K. Lutgens
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2
Chapter 1: Matter and Minerals
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Sample Questions
Q1) The micas, biotite and muscovite, both exhibit one direction of cleavage.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) If a mineral has a specific gravity of 3, it must be ________ times as dense as water.
Answer: 3
Q3) Which of the following has the highest specific gravity?
A)styrofoam
B)water
C)halite
D)gold
Answer: D
Q4) All compounds are minerals.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q5) To test whether a rock sample includes any of the mineral calcite, you should perform the ________ test.
Answer: hydrochloric acid
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Chapter 2: Rocks: Materials of the Solid Earth
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Q1) Magma that might have cooled slowly to produce a diorite is instead erupted at Earth's surface. It would chill rapidly and produce a(n)________.
A)rhyolite
B)andesite
C)basalt
D)granite
Answer: B
Q2) Detrital sedimentary rocks are classified and named principally on the basis of
A)grain size
B)location
C)rock color
D)composition
Answer: A
Q3) Rock salt and rock gypsum are examples of ________ sedimentary rocks.
Answer: chemical
Q4) When a granite pluton (formed deep underground)is uplifted and exposed at the surface, it may undergo sheeting to form a(n)________.
Answer: exfoliation dome
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Chapter 3: Landscapes Fashioned by Water
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Sample Questions
Q1) Artesian wells may be nonflowing.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) ________ can form when the pressure surface is above the land surface.
Answer: Flowing artesian wells
Q3) ________ is located in tiny pore spaces between grains of soil and sediment, underground.
Answer: Groundwater
Q4) Caves are formed by groundwater in granite and basalt.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q5) Old Faithful, a(n)________ in Yellowstone National Park, erupts steam and hot water.
Answer: geyser
Q6) A hot spring is a kind of geyser.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Page 5
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Chapter 4: Glacial and Arid Landscapes
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Sample Questions
Q1) Hanging valleys are glacier-cut valleys that flooded as sea level rose in post-glacial times.
A)True
B)False
Q2) About what percentage of Earth's land surface is covered by deserts?
A)3%
B)15%
C)30%
D)55%
Q3) Where is the world's largest ice sheet located today?
A)Greenland
B)Alaska
C)Iceland
D)Antarctica
Q4) A(n)________ a thick, flowing ice mass that forms over hundreds or thousands of years.
Q5) Till is unsorted sediment deposited directly from the melting glacial ice; stream action is not involved.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 5: Plate Tectonics: A Scientific Revolution Unfolds
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the early part of the twentieth century, ________ argued forcefully for the idea of continental drift.
A)Richard Wagner
B)Alfred Wegener
C)James Hutton
D)Harry Hess
Q2) Mantle convection may occur in two layers within the mantle - the active upper mantle and the sluggish lower mantle - as proposed in the layer cake model.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Linear, magnetic patterns associated with mid-ocean ridges are configured as ________.
A)concentric circles about a rising plume of hot, mantle rocks and magma
B)normal and reversed magnetized strips roughly perpendicular to the ridge axis
C)reversed magnetizations along the rift valleys and normal magnetizations on the ridge
D)normal and reversed magnetized strips roughly parallel to the ridge
Q4) ________ was a supercontinent that existed in the late Paleozoic era of geologic time.
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Chapter 6: Restless Earth: Earthquakes, Geologic Structures, and Mountain Building
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Q1) In general, buildings constructed on ________ fare better in an earthquake than buildings constructed on ________, as this material amplifies seismic shaking.
Q2) During an earthquake near Port Royal, Jamaica, the water-saturated sand on which the city was built vigorously shook. As a result, the sand particles lost contact with one another, giving the mixture the consistency of a thick milk shake. Anything supported by the ground, such as buildings and people, either floated or sank. One eyewitness stated: "Whole streets with inhabitants were swallowed up. . . . Some were swallowed quite down, and cast up again by great quantities of water; others went down and were never more seen." This is a description of ________.
A)liquefaction
B)tsunami
C)landslide
D)subsidence
Q3) Sediment scraped off the subducting plate builds up in a(n)________. A nice example of this can be seen in central California's coast ranges.
Q4) The ________ is the cool, brittle, outer layer of Earth that includes the crust and uppermost mantle.
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Chapter 7: Volcanoes and Other Igneous Activity
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Q1) Lava tubes would be more likely to be form at a shield volcano like Kilauea than at a composite volcano like Mount St. Helens.
A)True
B)False
Q2) ________ is type of basaltic lava flow has its surface covered with sharp-edged, angular blocks and rubble.
Q3) A(n)________ is a dangerous, fast moving, hot, turbulent cloud of volcanic gases and solid particles.
Q4) A long-lived magma source located in the mantle is called a ________.
A)magma welt
B)plume
C)hot spot
D)basalt spout
Q5) Which type of basaltic lava flow has a fairly smooth, unfragmented, ropy surface?
A)aa
B)pahoehoe
C)pumice
D)scoria
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Chapter 8: Geologic Time
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Phanerozoic, Proterozoic, and Archean are all eons.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Compare and contrast relative age dating with radiometric age dating. What is a limitation (if any)of each?
Q3) Would a pigeon or a penguin make a better index fossil for the present day?
Q4) "This rock is fifteen million years old," is an example of ________.
A)a numerical date
B)a relative date
C)superposition
D)the principle of cross-cutting relationships
Q5) All of geologic time prior to the beginning of the Paleozoic era is commonly referred to as the ________.
Q6) Most sedimentary rocks cannot be dated directly by ________ methods.
Q7) A worm would stand a poor chance of being fossilized because ________.
A)worms were very rare during the geologic past
B)worms have no hard parts
C)worms contain no carbon-14
D)worms live in the shallow ocean
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Chapter 9: Oceans: The Last Frontier
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is associated with oceanic ridges?
A)rift zones
B)elevated topography
C)volcanoes
D)all of the above
Q2) A prominent feature of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a very deep linear valley known as a(n)________.
Q3) What kind of seawater is densest?
A)warm, low salinity
B)warm, high salinity
C)cold, low salinity
D)cold, high salinity
Q4) The Atlantic and Pacific basins have oceanic ridges but the Indian Ocean has no oceanic ridge.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The west coast of South America and the east coast of North America display the same kind of continental margin.
A)True
B)False
11
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Chapter 10: The Restless Ocean
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Q1) Fetch is ________.
A)a method of shoreline erosion control
B)the distance between the trough of a wave and the still water level
C)the circular pattern made by water particles when a wave passes
D)the distance over which the wind blows over open water
Q2) The daily tidal range is of the least magnitude during ________.
A)the daytime
B)spring tides
C)neap tides
D)slack water
Q3) To measure wave period, the best tool to use would be a ruler.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Waves approaching a beach at an oblique angle ________.
A)cause beach drift
B)cause hard stabilization
C)cause coasts to switch from submergence to emergence
D)make tides rise and fall
Q5) Describe some of the options available to people when it comes to coping with erosion along shorelines.
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Chapter 11: Heating the Atmosphere
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Sample Questions
Q1) The form of oxygen that combines three atoms of oxygen into each molecule is
Q2) Imagine you are hired by NASA to help plan for a new "rover" mission to Mars. Your supervisors learn that you have been trained in Earth science, and they ask you to consider solar panels as a source of energy for many of the rover's instruments while it is on the Martian surface. Using your knowledge of seasons and temperatures here on Earth as a model, briefly outline the factors what would influence solar radiation on the Martian surface.
Q3) Energy from the Sun reaches Earth through ________.
A)convection
B)conduction
C)radiation
D)gravity
Q4) The most important elements of weather and climate (quantities or properties that are measured regularly)are (1)air temperature, (2)________, (3)type and amount of cloudiness, (4)type and amount of precipitation, (5)air ________, and (6)the speed and direction of the wind.
Q5) On a map, lines connecting points of equal temperature are ________.
Q6) Ozone is concentrated in the middle part of the ________.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Moisture, Clouds, and Precipitation
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Sample Questions
Q1) Any open container having a consistent cross-sectional area throughout can be used as a(n)________.
Q2) Explain how perspiring cools the skin.
Q3) Which of the following is a cloud of vertical development?
A)cirrus
B)stratocumulus
C)nimbostratus
D)cumulonimbus
Q4) The collision-coalescence process generates big raindrops that sweep up smaller cloud droplets, thus growing bigger. Potentially, they grow so large that frictional drag from the surrounding air causes the raindrop to break apart into a larger number of smaller droplets.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Air that resists vertical motion is described as being stable.
A)True
B)False
Q6) The Bergeron process operates only in warm clouds.
A)True
B)False
Page 14
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Chapter 13: The Atmosphere in Motion
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Q1) In Eurasia, the land becomes cold in the winter and develops a seasonal high-pressure system from which surface flow is directed off the land. In the summer, in contrast, the opposite occurs: The landmasses are heated and develop a low-pressure cell, which permits air to flow onto the land. This "switch" in directions of airflow into or off of the continent gives rise to ________.
A)the monsoon B)cyclones
C)the polar high D)easterlies and westerlies
Q2) The Coriolis effect influences wind speed but not wind direction. A)True B)False
Q3) Above a height of a few kilometers, the Coriolis effect is equal to and opposite the pressure gradient force, which results in ________ winds that blow parallel to the isobars.
Q4) In the Northern Hemisphere, the Coriolis effect shifts objects to the ________ of their straight-line paths.
Q5) ________ is the result of horizontal differences in air pressure.
Q6) ________ of air occurs near Earth's surface around an anticyclone.
Page 15
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Chapter 14: Weather Patterns and Severe Weather
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Q1) When continental polar air moves over a relatively warm lake, such as the Great Lakes, the air mass acquires both heat and moisture, resulting in ________ on the land leeward of the lake.
Q2) When an active cold front overtakes a warm front a(n)________ forms.
Q3) A hurricane has slower wind speeds than a tornado does, but it inflicts more damage. Why?
Q4) A warm front is predicted to come through your area tomorrow. You should prepare for thunderstorms, hail, and tornadoes.
A)True
B)False
Q5) 1)cold front
2)warm front
3)Enhanced Fujita intensity scale
4)Saffir-Simpson scale
5)tornado watch
6)tornado warning
7)tornado
8)hurricane
Q6) Hail, thunder, and tornadoes are all characteristic features of a(n)________ front.
Page 16
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Chapter 15: The Nature of the Solar System
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Q1) It has been estimated that Halley's Comet, which has an orbital period of 76 years, has a mass of 100 billion tons. Furthermore, it is estimated to lose about 100 million tons of material when its orbit brings it close to the Sun. The maximum remaining life span of Halley's Comet is ________.
Q2) Three laws of planetary motion were discovered by ________.
A)Sir Isaac Newton
B)Johannes Kepler
C)Tycho Brahe
D)Nicolaus Copernicus
Q3) ________ gave Galileo a huge advantage over his astronomical predecessors.
A)Use of a telescope
B)Unadulterated genius
C)The fresh perspective of Copernicus's ideas about a geocentric universe
D)Newton's laws of motion
Q4) The nebular theory suggests that, as time goes by, our solar system is trending towards a greater and greater number of smaller and smaller bodies.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The law of universal gravitation was formulated by ________.
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Chapter 16: Beyond Our Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) Rapidly rotating neutron stars ________.
A)produce radio waves at their magnetic poles, causing them to be perceived (from Earth's perspective)as pulsars
B)are more dense than black holes
C)have a central barred region
D)cannot be detected directly, but we can observe their gravitational effects on other physical objects
Q2) Smallest white dwarves have the largest mass.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Hubble's law states that galaxies are receding from us at a speed that is proportional to ________.
A)their distance
B)their mass
C)their luminosity (absolute magnitude)
D)their age
Q4) ________ is a kind of matter that doesn't interact with visible light, but exerts a gravitational pull on other matter. It is hypothesized to exist in great quantities in the universe.
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